Pooh Brown

There is always a risk in combining lots of colours together you end up with poohy brown. The goal is to turn lots of colours into a rainbow. I’ve had an amazing, almost completely exhausting day working with creative people.

Although in some industries the word “creative” is in the pejorative, in the industry in which I work it’s a great thing.

In the industry in which I work – hopefully – everyone is very very creative. I mean, you all need all sorts of people in a workplace, but essentially you’re hoping that people want to make interesting wonderful, creative, meaningly things, no matter how they get there.

And I’ve learned today how creative people get there in so many different ways.

An analogy, for you, from the world of art.

If you were given a blank piece of paper of about 30cm by 30cm and asked to draw a picture of a house for an exhibition that was opening in a week’s time, what would you do?

Would you instantly sit down and draw a house? Would you draw upon your own memories of what houses look like? Would you draw a picture of your family house? Or would you draw the house you’ve always wanted to live in?

Or would you want to know what kind of house I wanted you to draw? And would you like to know if the house should be white, or blue in green colour? And would you like to know if the house should be in a tree-lined street, or simply in an apartment block?

While many people love the blank canvas, it seems to worry others.

And of course, others still, think the canvas should a different shape and the exhibition should be next year, not next week.

They’re all creative people, but in ohh, so many different ways.

For me today the role has been that of curator of an exhibition: to define the boundaries of an exhibition, to provide the broad sense of direction, to define the deadline and then to hang the paintings in a complete, cohesive manner.

And in doing that you need to mix the colours properly.

When you combine a lot of colours together there is always the risk you end up with an awful shade of pooh brown.